Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is an endorser of the following call to action, initiated by the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah. We encourage all to join the campaign by organizing a screening of Fedayin, hosting an event or action in solidarity with Georges Abdallah, and sharing this call and other information:
September 24 to October 23, 2021
On 19 September 2020, the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah called for an international month of actions for the release of our comrade. Guided by the firm conviction that this fight had to be waged on political grounds, since the refusal by the French State to release Georges Abdallah is indeed a political decision, many organizations and collectives supported this call to “concretely engage in the field of struggle, everywhere in France and internationally, in order to build the mobilization and help to publicize the case and the struggle of Georges Abdallah.”
This call was based on a clear political line and a clear line of defense of our comrade: the political identity that Georges Abdallah himself enunciates in his statements. A line recalling that:
1. Georges Abdallah is an Arab resistance fighter, a Lebanese communist, today a symbol of the fight against imperialism, Zionism, capitalism and reactionary Arab states.
2. Georges Abdallah is a fighter for the Palestinian cause who fought against the invasion and war imposed on Lebanon by the Zionists and continues to fight for the liberation of all of Palestine.
3. Georges Abdallah has been a political prisoner of the French state for over 37 years now, to the applause of the United States and the Zionist entity.
4. We fully recognize ourselves in the struggle of Georges Abdallah. We recognize ourselves in his unwavering revolutionary internationalist commitment during his four decades of incarceration for the end of colonialism throughout the world, in all its forms, for the end of capitalism and exploitation and in support of the struggle of the peoples against all oppressions.
5. We recognize ourselves in his fierce determination and his unwavering conscience to lead the fight for his liberation not on the ground of the “judicial quibbles” of class justice but at the level of the political authorities – where decisions are truly made, outweighing the place and weight of the judicial ritual when it comes to political prisoners.
6. We share his line of conduct regarding the support to be given to him for his release: ” It is in the field of struggle that we can and must provide the most significant support to our comrades.” And in his case, as he himself puts it very clearly, “it is not enough that the State of Lebanon ‘demands’ or rather ‘requests’ my release, it is also necessary that the really existing balance of power can make the representatives of French imperialism understand that my imprisonment begins to weigh more heavily than the possible threat inherent in my release. It is only in this case that the order of my expulsion towards Lebanon will not meet any more opposition. This is why, dear Friends and Comrades, the most appropriate solidarity that we can bring to any imprisoned revolutionary protagonist, is that which we develop more and more in the field of struggle. against the system of exploitation and domination”. (Lannemezan, October 19, 2019).
This line of defense of our comrade, on his political basis, was ours in the past years and remains so today.
It is more relevant than ever at a time when the French State continues to keep Georges Abdallah in prison, without the extradition notice being signed by the Minister of the Interior as per the condition of his release. It is also more relevant than ever at a time when Georges Abdallah continues to confront his jailers, not to give in, to resist and where the mobilization for his release is growing ever stronger, day after day: everywhere in France, the initiatives to demand his release are carried out with elected officials, in the heart of cities and in front of the authorities of the State, with poster campaigns, gatherings and tables, during meetings, meals and solidarity celebrations, by calls for signatures and letters sent to the highest representative of the State, during political party events, and naturally within the process of all social and political struggles. Georges Abdallah, on a daily basis, is part of our struggles and no action is carried out without our reaffirming that we are part of his fight. This commitment in the region and at the national level is now also broad at the international level where Georges Abdallah has supporters on almost all continents (in Latin America – in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, the United States, in the Maghreb and in the Arab East – in particular in Palestine and Lebanon, India, Europe).
The time has now come to ensure that Georges Abdallah is not only, as Leïla Khaled said, “a symbol for revolutionaries around the world” but a symbol of the unanimously recognized resistance, in which everyone demands his release in the name of the just and legitimate right to revolt and to resist. The time has come to have Georges Abdallah recognized as a unanimously recognized symbol of resistance at a time when everywhere in the world, contradictions are certainly sharpening but also the resistance of the peoples, who now come into direct confrontation with power and claim by revolt what is due to them; at a time when the resistance of the Palestinian people, in their struggle for national liberation, leads an offensive on the Zionist occupier, bringing its blows to the very heart of the most secure settlements or high security prisons; at a time when it is high time to demand accountability and ensure that fear changes sides!
While in Lebanon a new government has just been formed with at its head as Prime Minister Mr. Najib Mikati who, in 2012, had demanded the release of Georges Abdallah and called for his return to the country as a Lebanese citizen, time has therefore come to harden the balance of power by increasing the mobilization for the liberation of our comrade.
It is in this sense and for all these reasons – while remaining faithful to the principles of action and the political line recalled here – that we are calling today for a new month of action, from 24 September to 23 October 2021, so that all of us, the supporters of our comrade, do not leave a free political space at the local, regional, national and international level without putting the demand for his release on the agenda.
In Albertville, Amiens, Annecy, Aubagne, Aubervilliers, Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Gennevilliers, Grenay, Grenoble, Lannemezan, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montauban, Montpellier, Morlaix, Nanterre, Nîmes, Paris, Pau, Saint-Denis , Saint-Etienne, Tarbes, Thionville, Toulouse, Troyes; in the Alpes-Maritimes, in Corsica, in Finistère, Gers, in Gironde, in Haute-Marne, in Hautes-Pyrénées, Hérault, Ile de France, Lot-et-Garonne, in the North and Pas-de-Calais, in the Pays de Cornouailles, in Poitou-Charentes, in Puy-de-Dôme, in the Rhône-Alpes region, in Seine-Maritime and in Tarn-et-Garonne; in Algeria, Germany, England, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Greece, India, Italy, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco, occupied Palestine, Peru, Poland, Romania, Tunisia, Turkey – everywhere in France and in the world where the struggle of Georges Abdallah is relayed and the demand for his release carried, wherever we are engaged in active solidarity support for our comrade, increase the mobilization actions and intensify the pressure on the representatives and places of power of the French State so that the current Minister of the Interior can finally sign the expulsion notice on which the release of our comrade is conditioned, and so this fight to end this iniquitous life sentence is won.
All of us – anarchists, autonomists, anti-fascists, anti-imperialists, anti-Zionists, communists, democrats, environmentalists, internationalists, libertarians, Marxist-Leninists, Marxist-Leninists-Maoists, rebellious republicans, revolutionaries, Trotskyists; involved in parties, unions, fronts, campaigns, associations, collectives, committees, movements and multiple networks; engaged alongside our comrade in political struggles for Palestine, in support of the Intifada and against Normalization; for the defense of peoples’ struggles and their resistance; for the defense of political prisoners and revolutionary prisoners; against imprisonment; against police violence; for the defense of immigration and working-class neighborhoods; against racism ; for the defense of workers, their achievements and their rights; in the Gilets Jaunes campaigns; for the fight for the emancipation of women; against torture and the death penalty – let us mobilize once again, all together where we are, in this diversity that is ours, from 24 September 2021 to 23 October 2021 so that by this date, the eleventh demonstration in Lannemezan is the last and that we can finally be at his side to continue the struggle.
One, two, three, a thousand initiatives for the release of Georges Abdallah!
He is part of our struggles, we are part of his fight!
Palestine will live, Palestine will win!
Victory or victory!
Paris, 19 September 2021
First signatories :Unitary campaign for the liberation of Georges Abdallah – Collective for the liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (CLGIA) – ANC (National Association of Communists) – The Workers’ Party of Turkey (DIP) – The Red Internationalist Collective for the Defense of Revolutionary Prisoners ( Le CRI Rouge) – Friends of Palestine against imperialism and Zionism (Turkey) – Committee of actions and support for the struggles of the Moroccan people – Committee for Popular Defense of Tunisia – Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Rights de l’Homme en Tunisie – Secours Rouge International – Secours Rouge de Belgique – Secours Rouge arabe – The Belgian Appeal for the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Union syndicale solidaire – Collectif 65 for the release of Georges Abdallah – Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity NEtwork – UL CGT Paris 18e – Collectif Palestine Vaincra – The Couserans-Palestine Association – Dimitri Konstantakopoulos, journalist and writer, former member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of SYRIZA (Greece) – International Committee in Support of the People’s War in India (Italy) – Proletari comunisti (Italy) ) – Soccorso rosso proletario (Italy) – Aline Pailler – AFPS 63 – Solidaire 31 – Revolutionary Youth League – A2C (Class autonomy) – Dominique Grange (Committed singer) – Tardi (Cartoonist) – Jean-Pierre Bastid and Emmanuelle de Bagnolet – Alima Boumediene Thiéry – Association Femmes Plurielles – Marie-France Pelletan (Ajaccio) – Helmuth Rudloff (Geneva) – René Naba, journalist-writer – Lise Bouzidi Vega, radio host and activist – Association Terre et Liberté pour Arauco – Ismaël Dupont,elected communist in Morlaix and in the department of Finistère, secretary of the PCF Finistère – José Navarro – Annick Weiner, professor emeritus – The International Support Network for Political Prisoners in Chile, (RIAPPECH) – the Charleroi-Palestine Platform – Youssef Boussoumah (decolonial HQ) and Houria Bouteldja (decolonial HQ) – Poitevin Palestine Committee – United Front for Immigration and Popular Quarters (FUIQP) – Association of Residents of Nanterre (ARENE) – Tunisian Solidarity Committee for Liberation by Georges Abdallah – Union Juive Française pour la Paix (UJFP) – Union Prolétarienne ML (UPML) – AFPS d’Albertville – AFPS Paris 14-6 -Arab Commission for Human Rights-professor emeritus – The International Support Network for Political Prisoners in Chile, (RIAPPECH) – the Charleroi-Palestine Platform – Youssef Boussoumah (decolonial HQ) and Houria Bouteldja (decolonial HQ) – Poitevin Palestine Committee – United Front of Immigration and Popular Quarters (FUIQP) – The Association of Residents of Nanterre (ARENE) – Tunisian Solidarity Committee for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah – Union Juive Française pour la Paix (UJFP) – Union Prolétarienne ML (UPML) ) – AFPS d’Albertville – AFPS Paris 14-6 -Arab Commission for Human Rights-professor emeritus – The International Support Network for Political Prisoners in Chile, (RIAPPECH) – the Charleroi-Palestine Platform – Youssef Boussoumah (decolonial HQ) and Houria Bouteldja (decolonial HQ) – Poitevin Palestine Committee – United Front of Immigration and Popular Quarters (FUIQP) – The Association of Residents of Nanterre (ARENE) – Tunisian Solidarity Committee for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah – Union Juive Française pour la Paix (UJFP) – Union Prolétarienne ML (UPML) ) – AFPS d’Albertville – AFPS Paris 14-6 -Arab Commission for Human Rights-(RIAPPECH) – the Charleroi-Palestine Platform – Youssef Boussoumah (decolonial HQ) and Houria Bouteldja (decolonial HQ) – Poitevin Palestine Committee – United Front for Immigration and Popular Quarters (FUIQP) – Association of Residents of Nanterre (ARENE) – Tunisian Solidarity Committee for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah – French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP) – Union Prolétarienne ML (UPML) – AFPS d’Albertville – AFPS Paris 14-6 – Arab Commission for Human Rights(RIAPPECH) – the Charleroi-Palestine Platform – Youssef Boussoumah (decolonial HQ) and Houria Bouteldja (decolonial HQ) – Poitevin Palestine Committee – United Front for Immigration and Popular Quarters (FUIQP) – Association of Residents of Nanterre (ARENE) – Tunisian Solidarity Committee for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah – French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP) – Union Prolétarienne ML (UPML) – AFPS d’Albertville – AFPS Paris 14-6 – Arab Commission for Human Rights
